ISIS shifts to ‘dark web’ to escape hacktivists

Islamic State militants are reportedly moving to the dark web as a way to protect their identities and content, after hundreds of websites and twitter accounts were taken down by hacktivists in the wake of last week’s Paris attacks.

After last Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris left at least 130 people dead, the hacker group Anonymous launched Operation Paris (#OpParis) to fight the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in cyberspace, with the hacktivists calling it their biggest campaign to date. It appears to be an escalation of the group’s #OpISIS campaign, which was launched in January after jihadists opened fire at the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The loosely-affiliated hacktivist network claims to have taken down roughly 6,000 Islamic State Twitter accounts since the tragedy occurred.